Uncle Liam
The King Of The Mountain
See Southpaw Grammar thread.
Maladjusted Appreciation Thread
- Thread starter Uncle Liam
- Start date
++++++
It's a god-eat-god world
Vastly underrated album, imo. I think it'd be a good one for Morrissey newcomers, much in the same way You Are The Quary is (well, it was for me anyway).
The music is quirky and (at times) grandoise, and I really believe that Morrissey's voice has never sounded better. It has some kind of inflection to it, I can't really put my finger on why I like it so much.
People slag the album all the time, but I think it's a set of really solid songs. The title track is (if not his best opener) quite good; Ammunition, Satan Rejected My Soul, and Alma Matters are classic Morrissey songs; Roy's Keen is playful and funny, and I don't think I need to say anything about Trouble Loves Me. The b-sides are wonderful, too. The only song I dislike at all on the album is Papa Jack.
As I said elsewhere, I almost like it more than Vauxhall & I. Which may make me legally insane.
The music is quirky and (at times) grandoise, and I really believe that Morrissey's voice has never sounded better. It has some kind of inflection to it, I can't really put my finger on why I like it so much.
People slag the album all the time, but I think it's a set of really solid songs. The title track is (if not his best opener) quite good; Ammunition, Satan Rejected My Soul, and Alma Matters are classic Morrissey songs; Roy's Keen is playful and funny, and I don't think I need to say anything about Trouble Loves Me. The b-sides are wonderful, too. The only song I dislike at all on the album is Papa Jack.
As I said elsewhere, I almost like it more than Vauxhall & I. Which may make me legally insane.
mspendl828
Banned
It's just as good as Quarry, which got rave reviews.
It's not spectacular, but it's very good. Replace a few of the duds with Lost and Edges and it's a hell of an album.
It's not spectacular, but it's very good. Replace a few of the duds with Lost and Edges and it's a hell of an album.
Kuiper
Better than Marr
Yeah it's a great album. By Moz standards it is one of his poorest ones, but compared to all the music out there, it certainly ranks very high for me. There are a few bumps in the road (the pointless-on-every-level-but-not-that-bad Papa Jack, the horrible Wide to Receive, and He Cried which at several points in the song has something good going, like a melody or chord progression, then drops it and ruins what was going on), but it has Ammunition and Trouble Loves Me, and those alone make it really good. Ambitious Outsiders and Satan Rejected My Soul are underrated on this album IMHO. And to end my structure-less rant, Sorrow Will Come in the End is fantastic. Sure, he's talking rather than singing, and his violently angry lyrics rub me the wrong way, but the music is outstanding.
mspendl828
Banned
Now I really like Wide To Receive, but other than that I think you're spot on.
He Cried really did not need to be recorded...
He Cried really did not need to be recorded...
Kuiper
Better than Marr
mspendl828 said:
Actually I just listened to Wide to Receive, and I realized it isn't that bad. I never liked the first couple seconds, I always thought it sounded nothing like Morrissey and apparently wasn't willing to give it a chance, but there are some really good moments throughout the song. A lot of little touches that sound quite pleasing.
mspendl828
Banned
I'm always right 
A brillant and underrated album. Boy George's favourite BTW. Good though I think it is, it is an album of hits and misses. Trouble Loves me is one of his best ever, Ammunition, Alma Matters, Maladjusted, Roy's Keen, He Cried and Satan Rejected my soul are very good IMO while Ambitious Outsiders, Wide to Receive and Papa Jack are not. Sorrow will come in the end I rather like as well.
nonesoever
General Dick Kay
I love it and I don't know why people dislike Papa Jack, except for the ending of the song, which is a bit too Vauxhall&Ish.
I especially enjoy the drumming on Papa Jack.
I especially enjoy the drumming on Papa Jack.
L
lightupvirginmary
Guest
I love love love Trouble Loves Me, Satan Rejected My Soul, Alma Matters AND Roy's Keen.
'even when it's under your nose, you just can't see it can you?' Brilliant.
All the window cleaner stuff is fun gibberish.
'even when it's under your nose, you just can't see it can you?' Brilliant.
All the window cleaner stuff is fun gibberish.
Stanley
Junior Member
Trouble loves me and the opener are superb. I play it now and again for a change but it's never really done it for me. I think the main criticism is that it doesn't really flow as an album as it's more like a collection of songs. If that makes sense. Lost would have been a great addition and the unreleased Kit always sounds good when Boz plays it live.
igotpictures
Oi Steve..stop it
I think its a amazing album, really good.
"Malajusted" and "Satan Rejected My soul" is two of my alltime favs, Boz Boorer seems to be in good spirit on a lot of the songs....i dont understand why it seems to be so underated
"Malajusted" and "Satan Rejected My soul" is two of my alltime favs, Boz Boorer seems to be in good spirit on a lot of the songs....i dont understand why it seems to be so underated
not only not known
Junior Member
i think maladjusted is the first of these last 3 classic albums which will (in the future when alls well) come to be seen as the best material hes ever done. maladjusted quarry and rott all sound related to me, mature, inspiring and very singable ... my favourite 3 morrissey songs from ALL time are ammunition, come back to camden and pigsty ...
mozmic_dancer
One of the Good Guys
As much as I tried, I could resist this thread. I missed Maladjusted the first time around. Thanks to the internet, I was able to purchase this cd about four months ago and I'm glad I did.
The opening track is amazing; a strange tale of late night bus riding and wine drinking. Sort of like "Maudlin Street" but more mature and detailed. "Alma Matters" is classic Moz inspired by old movie dramas again "it's my life to ruin my own way." The strings on "Ambitious Outsiders" sound great, but it's a strange song. "Trouble Loves Me" -- classic Moz (I hope to hear this live when he hopefully swings my way.)
"Papa Jack" is a sad song. Could be about a father, or the Union Jack; who the hell knows. I like it. "Ammunition" has some memorable lyrics "I know what's expected of me now / veering cliffwards." "Wide to Receive" is very nice. I got a big kick out of "Roy's Keen" -- glad I'm not the only one who finds window cleaners sexy. His vocals on "He Cried" I thought were wonderful, especially when he gets to the part: "So he froze / and he looked, and he looked / to the ground / and he cried." I feel verklempt all of a sudden. Don't mind me. Talk amongst yourselves, please.
Oh, the drama, the drama of "Sorrow Will Come In The End": I don't think of it much as a song as it is a theatrical reading at the end of Act II. Very ballsy on his part. Note to Self: Never, never piss off Moz! And lastly, my favorite closer of all time: "Satan Rejected My Soul"-- super pop song, featuring satanic guitar-playing all the way down to the oooh, ooohs at the end.
I listened to this cd for two months straight riding on the NJ Transit bus to NY and people to this day ask me what the hell was I listening to that gave me such a smile.
The opening track is amazing; a strange tale of late night bus riding and wine drinking. Sort of like "Maudlin Street" but more mature and detailed. "Alma Matters" is classic Moz inspired by old movie dramas again "it's my life to ruin my own way." The strings on "Ambitious Outsiders" sound great, but it's a strange song. "Trouble Loves Me" -- classic Moz (I hope to hear this live when he hopefully swings my way.)
"Papa Jack" is a sad song. Could be about a father, or the Union Jack; who the hell knows. I like it. "Ammunition" has some memorable lyrics "I know what's expected of me now / veering cliffwards." "Wide to Receive" is very nice. I got a big kick out of "Roy's Keen" -- glad I'm not the only one who finds window cleaners sexy. His vocals on "He Cried" I thought were wonderful, especially when he gets to the part: "So he froze / and he looked, and he looked / to the ground / and he cried." I feel verklempt all of a sudden. Don't mind me. Talk amongst yourselves, please.
Oh, the drama, the drama of "Sorrow Will Come In The End": I don't think of it much as a song as it is a theatrical reading at the end of Act II. Very ballsy on his part. Note to Self: Never, never piss off Moz! And lastly, my favorite closer of all time: "Satan Rejected My Soul"-- super pop song, featuring satanic guitar-playing all the way down to the oooh, ooohs at the end.
I listened to this cd for two months straight riding on the NJ Transit bus to NY and people to this day ask me what the hell was I listening to that gave me such a smile.
faroffplaces
How I feel in my mind
Ten things I find wonderful about Maladjusted - obviously your mileage varies w/regard to this album and the interpretation of its specific aspects, so I emphasize that this is personal opinion:
1. The general feeling of slippage; to me, this is what unifies the album and keeps it from becoming incoherent. Everything on it is slightly askew; silly lyrics ("Roy's Keen") are stuck to the most pathos-ridden melodies and vice versa; songs end, sometimes twice ("Trouble Loves Me") and then start up again, and melodies/lyrics tend to "slip off" the backing tracks (most noticably on "Ammunition" and "Satan Rejected My Soul"), with Morrissey's vocal coming in and wandering out at odd times. These are all tricks he uses elsewhere, but nowhere else are they this prominent; the whole album, echoing its title, feels deliberately skewed and liminal.
2. "Maladjusted," featuring the greatest placename pun ever: "Stevenage overspill," which is just what the song sounds like: a spilling-out, a weird regurgitation of S. Morrissey's mental flotsam. It's quite unique, and works equally well whether you want to read its references as literally autobiographical (stalking the house in a low-cut blouse...) or as fiction or bits of a movie.
3. "On this glorious occasion of the splendid defeat:" this album came out at Morrissey's commercial and public and (probably) personal nadir (post-failure of Southpaw, post-disastrous Bowie tour, post-Lawsuit...). It has a self-awareness to it, I think as a result, which is virtually unreplicated elsewhere in his work; of course he's self-aware elsewhere, but only on Maladjusted is there no sense of remove.
4. "Trouble loves me/seeks and finds me/to charlatanize me/which is only as it should be."
5. Maladjusted's incoherent vocables are particularly memorable, even in an incoherent vocable canon that includes "Bigmouth Strikes Again."
6. "Ambitious Outsiders," which I (somewhat dubiously, but instinctively) think is about homophobia, not murder. The gay narrator is responding to arguments that his orientation is a threat to the social order, a threat to the children; he's so sick and tired of the discussion, however, that all that comes out is weary sarcasm: "Yes, the more freedom you give us, the more we'll want...one moment decriminalization, the next we'll be out in the streets in our Dorothy wigs, every hour of every day! And yes, naturally, we're trying to convert your young. Think of all the unwanted pregnancies averted!"
7. The use of awkward ("We knows...") and excessive rhymes ("with a head full of dread/for all I've ever said...") is particularly prevalent on this album; I don't know if it's deliberate, but it always seems to show up in a particularly funny or effective place.
8. "Wide to Receive," pretty much the definitive song about the false closeness and profound alienation that the Internet can induce - and written in 1997, no less. (Well, that and a sexual subtext a little less apparent than "you can pin and mount me like a butterfly," but still, imo, present - which makes me think it's really about the idea of finding partners online, or cybersex. If this is the case, then I hope it's not autobiographical - for the sake of the partner; I can't help but picture Morrissey interrupting the cyberproceedings at the crucial moment with a deliberately disgusting comment, or to quote Joe Orton.)
9. "Roy's Keen." If you know Stephen Sondheim's musical "Sunday In The Park With George," than you know the meaning of pain...and also a song called "Everybody Loves Louis," in which Sondheim, very transparently, bemoans the success of popular "artists" who are, to his mind, no more than craftsmen...who happen to be charming enough to romance the public.
The song is insufferable. So is "Roy's Keen," and I think the subtext is the same. The difference is, Morrissey is talented enough to get away with it.
(Oh, sure, I know that there are tons of Morrissey songs which are solely intended as silliness; maybe this is one of them. But I keep seeing it, nonetheless, and the song seems awfully fully developed for something that's just a joke. Whatever, right?)
10. There is no number 10. Much though I like Maladjusted, I still have to admit that it's narrow in scope, lacks something I can only describe as "drive,"
And
includes
"Sorrow
Will
Come
In
The
End,"
which must have sent chills down a lot of spines in 1997.
"Is he really going to go on about this for the next decade?"
"Yessss....."
Now is it really Boy George's favorite? I love Boy George.
It's not my favorite, but it's in my solo top three. I agree that it's somehow an album that makes you smile at inappropriate times, in my case generally at work...
1. The general feeling of slippage; to me, this is what unifies the album and keeps it from becoming incoherent. Everything on it is slightly askew; silly lyrics ("Roy's Keen") are stuck to the most pathos-ridden melodies and vice versa; songs end, sometimes twice ("Trouble Loves Me") and then start up again, and melodies/lyrics tend to "slip off" the backing tracks (most noticably on "Ammunition" and "Satan Rejected My Soul"), with Morrissey's vocal coming in and wandering out at odd times. These are all tricks he uses elsewhere, but nowhere else are they this prominent; the whole album, echoing its title, feels deliberately skewed and liminal.
2. "Maladjusted," featuring the greatest placename pun ever: "Stevenage overspill," which is just what the song sounds like: a spilling-out, a weird regurgitation of S. Morrissey's mental flotsam. It's quite unique, and works equally well whether you want to read its references as literally autobiographical (stalking the house in a low-cut blouse...) or as fiction or bits of a movie.
3. "On this glorious occasion of the splendid defeat:" this album came out at Morrissey's commercial and public and (probably) personal nadir (post-failure of Southpaw, post-disastrous Bowie tour, post-Lawsuit...). It has a self-awareness to it, I think as a result, which is virtually unreplicated elsewhere in his work; of course he's self-aware elsewhere, but only on Maladjusted is there no sense of remove.
4. "Trouble loves me/seeks and finds me/to charlatanize me/which is only as it should be."
5. Maladjusted's incoherent vocables are particularly memorable, even in an incoherent vocable canon that includes "Bigmouth Strikes Again."
6. "Ambitious Outsiders," which I (somewhat dubiously, but instinctively) think is about homophobia, not murder. The gay narrator is responding to arguments that his orientation is a threat to the social order, a threat to the children; he's so sick and tired of the discussion, however, that all that comes out is weary sarcasm: "Yes, the more freedom you give us, the more we'll want...one moment decriminalization, the next we'll be out in the streets in our Dorothy wigs, every hour of every day! And yes, naturally, we're trying to convert your young. Think of all the unwanted pregnancies averted!"
7. The use of awkward ("We knows...") and excessive rhymes ("with a head full of dread/for all I've ever said...") is particularly prevalent on this album; I don't know if it's deliberate, but it always seems to show up in a particularly funny or effective place.
8. "Wide to Receive," pretty much the definitive song about the false closeness and profound alienation that the Internet can induce - and written in 1997, no less. (Well, that and a sexual subtext a little less apparent than "you can pin and mount me like a butterfly," but still, imo, present - which makes me think it's really about the idea of finding partners online, or cybersex. If this is the case, then I hope it's not autobiographical - for the sake of the partner; I can't help but picture Morrissey interrupting the cyberproceedings at the crucial moment with a deliberately disgusting comment, or to quote Joe Orton.)
9. "Roy's Keen." If you know Stephen Sondheim's musical "Sunday In The Park With George," than you know the meaning of pain...and also a song called "Everybody Loves Louis," in which Sondheim, very transparently, bemoans the success of popular "artists" who are, to his mind, no more than craftsmen...who happen to be charming enough to romance the public.
The song is insufferable. So is "Roy's Keen," and I think the subtext is the same. The difference is, Morrissey is talented enough to get away with it.
(Oh, sure, I know that there are tons of Morrissey songs which are solely intended as silliness; maybe this is one of them. But I keep seeing it, nonetheless, and the song seems awfully fully developed for something that's just a joke. Whatever, right?)
10. There is no number 10. Much though I like Maladjusted, I still have to admit that it's narrow in scope, lacks something I can only describe as "drive,"
And
includes
"Sorrow
Will
Come
In
The
End,"
which must have sent chills down a lot of spines in 1997.
"Is he really going to go on about this for the next decade?"
"Yessss....."
Now is it really Boy George's favorite? I love Boy George.
It's not my favorite, but it's in my solo top three. I agree that it's somehow an album that makes you smile at inappropriate times, in my case generally at work...
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